Support community for JTV.

I am confused about adding alternate tunings. I just read the following in the FAQ document:

Alternate Tuning Knob

Q: How does the Alternate Tuning Knob on the JTV guitars work?A: The Alternate Tuning Knob on the JTV gutiars can be used to any of the preset tunings that are saved to the knob. This knob has 12 settings including two labeled 'Model' and 'Standard'

Set to 'Model,' the Alternate Tuning Knob lets you access the alternate tunings you created using the Variax Workbench software. These tunings are stored on your Variax's Model knob. Set to 'Standard,' the Alternate Tuning knob overrides saved tunings to set every model to standard EADGBE tuning.

The Alt Tune knob's remainging 10 settings are hand-picked for each stle of James Tyler Variax guitar.

I also read this section in the JTV manual, and am still not entirely clear on how this works.

Three questions:

(1) Am I to understand that with WorkBench you could actually assign totally different alternate tunings to every guitar model, and that these alternate tunings would automatically come into play as long as the tuning knob is set to "Model"? Or is this only true for the CUSTOM guitar models?

(2) And if you can modify the tuning of every guitar model (programmed using Workbench), will the tuning for each of those alternately tuned models change when you switch the tuning knob from "Model" to one of the factory set alternate tunings (e.g. DADGAD or RESO G)? I would assume yes.

(3) Lastly, can you also create an alternate tuning and overwrite one of the factory tunings on the tuning knob? If I always wanted to be able use some unusual tuning with any of the guitar models, I would want to be able to put that tuning in one of the tuning knob positions. Can this be done? How come there isn't at least one custom slot for this?

If you use Workbench you can create ANY guitar in ANY bank in ANY slot with ANY atl tuning you want. You just have to remember that in order for any VDI equipped gear to save and recall those guitars, you MUST have the JTV alt tuning knob set to MODEL.

Otherwise, you can either use the factory Alt tunings, or create as many of your own to put into those slots. HOWEVER - you MUST perform this action ON THE GUITAR ITSELF and save it to an Alt tuning slot that will read as something else. A good thing the guitar does is when something alt tuning is different than a factory tuning, the knob turns BLUE to let ya know the tuning there is not what is written on the knob.

I hope this clears things up on how the alternate tuning works with the JTV and (not including the Alt tuning knob), works the same way with any of the previous Variax guitars using Workbench.

Take care,

Neal

So let me see if I have this straight? Every guitar model can be assigned it's own totally unique and unusual alternate tuning, and those tunings will automatically become active if the Tuning Knob is set to "Model", and then those special tunings will be overridden by any of the other positions of the Tuning Knob?

If that is true, and Neal has also confirmed that you can overwrite the any of the Tunings on the Tuning Knob with a custom tuning, then I guess my questions are all answered. I still think it is a shame that there is not 1 or 2 CUSTOM positions on the Tuning Knob so that you could apply your own special tunings to any of the guitar models at any time without overwriting the factory tunings. Seem like an oversight, since probably no one likes the idea of overwriting a tuning that is then going to read wrong on the knob.

I just know that I will have a few special tunings that I will probably want to add to the Tuning Knob. Not sure which ones I will end up overwriting though.

RE: Alternate tunings and the JTV...
by Kneehow on 2011-02-10 10:19:03

Yes, the Variax Workbench software is one method of editing/saving alternate tunings on our JTV's.

However, it's possible to do it without even connecting to the software. The new JTV's have the "virtual capo" feature that allows user to create alternate tunings from the guitar itself.

Re: RE: Alternate tunings and the JTV...
by zeddd on 2011-02-10 14:37:46

I think the virtual capo feature is fantastic, but I still don't understand why there isn't one setting on the knob which is marked CAPO, or USER, or CUSTOM so that you can have just one slot that has your own custom tuning, or whatever your current CAPO setting is, without having to overwrite a factory tuning. The idea that I have to overwrite a factory tuning in order to use the virtual capo, and then remember to tune that setting back to the factory tuning again if I want to go back to it seems to be much less elegant than it could have been with at least one dedicated slot for a user tuning.

Or am I misunderstanding something about the tuning knob?

RE: Alternate tunings and the JTV...
by Kneehow on 2011-02-10 16:46:21

As a support rep, I can't explain "why" the product development team chose the design implementation they did (I'm sure they had their reasons).

From a usage point-of-view I can tell you that those are simply memory locations that allow a user to store alternate tunings in the Flash Memory.

In other words, you can overwrite every single one of those Tuning slot positions with your own. I have a feeling this was the answer you were looking for all along...

But by default, our Product Development team arbitrary chose to have the knob labeled with those specific tunings as Factory Defaults (as a starting point, or perhaps for people who don't plan to overwrite them and just default to them out of convenience?). Most users will probably overwrite those with their own custom tunings as time goes by.

Hope this answered your question.

Regards,

L6Perry

Re: RE: Alternate tunings and the JTV...
by zeddd on 2011-02-10 19:48:11

Line6Perry wrote:

In other words, you can overwrite every single one of those Tuning slot positions with your own. I have a feeling this was the answer you were looking for all along...

But by default, our Product Development team arbitrary chose to have the knob labeled with those specific tunings as Factory Defaults (as a starting point, or perhaps for people who don't plan to overwrite them and just default to them out of convenience?). Most users will probably overwrite those with their own custom tunings as time goes by.

I guess I'm just a user who wants to have access to all those factory tunings. I see the value in each of them. I like the idea of picking a guitar and then noodling around with different tunings to see what kind of inspirations I will have... or vise versa. The idea that I will have overwrite any one of those useful factory tunings just gets under my skin. I would have felt a whole lot better about it to have a CAPO position which stores whatever current alternate tuning I have created.

I suppose I will just have to get clever with programming favorite guitars with certain altered tunings which will automatically be accessed in MODEL mode of the tuning knob.

Re: Alternate tunings and the JTV...
by kokopelli_ on 2011-03-25 06:35:14

I am storing my custome alternate tuning in the STANDARD slot, because that is one that I can remember what to set it back to.

That sounds like a lot of extra work going back and forth. I think I will have to determine which of the alternate tunings I would tend to use the least and then use that one as my toggle tuning. I don't want to have to do extra work every time I go back to the most often used Standard Tuning.

I think I will use one of the open tunings since these can be easily rebuilt by using the electronic capo and just fingering the open chord which is the same as the open tuning you want to use. This also means that you can do variations of open tunings--i.e. an alternate Open A tuning by using different notes from the A chord in combination with the open strings to make a different Open A tuning.

The information above may not be current, and you should direct questions to the current forum or review the manual.